Reply to I make my kids separate meals from us for pretty much every meal and I think it's better

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Reply to "I make my kids separate meals from us for pretty much every meal and I think it's better"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I"m just throwing this out there because I constantly hear the advice about how your kids should "eat what you eat." But they don't want to! It does't taste good to them -- they have brand new taste buds, so strong flavors are too much for them,[b] plus kids naturally gravitate towards foods that are sweeter and simpler.[/b] I figure as they get older they will naturally become more interested in more adult flavors and start to eat more of our foods.

[/quote]
 Of course they do.  But for me, I felt it was important to introduce my kids to different types of sweetness.  There is pasta sweet, cake sweet, tomato sweet, watermelon sweet.  It's also important to realize that not all food tastes sweet.  There's nothing wrong with simply prepared food--grilled/baked chicken + steamed vegetables = simple.  [b]I disagree with you that as they get older they naturally become more interested in adult flavors.[/b]  Why should they change their eating habits as they become older if it's been working for them so far.[/quote]

Both my husband and I were very picky eaters as kids. He was extremely picky -- I think he had years where he ate almost nothing but PB&J and would not even try other foods. I'd try foods but disliked a lot of foods, and was very limited in what textures and flavors I'd accept. Both of us spent years getting yelled at for not eating what was served at the dinner table and we both have memories of trying to eat what was served but literally gagging when we put some of the food in our mouths.

As adults, we both eat a wide range of foods including lots of spicy foods, bitter vegetables. My favorite adult food is salad with a spicy dressing, my husband loves sushi. These are things we would NEVER have eaten as kids. As we got older, we experimented more and our tastes naturally matured. We got bored with blander, sweeter kid foods. We also recognized the social benefits of having a more adventurous palate in college and after.

There are lots of reasons that kids palates change as they get older -- they have friends who eat other foods and want to fit in, they get bored, they travel. I think the goal is to teach your kids to have a willingness to try new things and not to limit themselves due to food (like I tell my DD that if she wants to be able to do sleepovers and have dinners at friends houses, she needs to be able to eat enough variety of foods that doing that won't mean going hungry, and that really motivates her to try new things). But it's okay for a kid to mostly gravitate towards "kid-friendly" foods when young and that absolutely does not mean that they won't develop a more sophisticated palate later. [/quote]

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